Miami’s Private Art Collections: Go Big or Go Home

Pérez Art Museum Miami, Ed Clark

With pastel Art Deco waterfront, perennial sunshine, salsa in the background and larger-than-life private art collections, Miami is my paradise winter destination. I have spent the last week examining the art on show. These totemic private collections exhibited in industrial warehouses and purpose-built constructions are hardly attainable for most. However, it gives us glimpses of the different styles and models that look at long term possibilities for art collecting. Enjoy the highlights!

De La Cruz Collection is located in the Miami Design District. The three-story building hosts Progressive Praxis, an exhibition focused on process and medium experimentation.

De la Cruz Collection, Wade Guyton and Félix González-Torres
Background: Wade Guyton, Untitled, 2012 Foreground: Félix González-Torres, Last Light, 1993
De la Cruz Collection, Tauba Auerbach
Tauba Auerbach
De la Cruz Collection, Tauba Auerbach
Tauba Auerbach
De la Cruz Collection, Mark Bradford
Mark Bradford, Left: Untitled, 2011; Left: 2871, 2012

De la Cruz Collection, Mark Bradford De la Cruz Collection, Mark Bradford

De la Cruz Collection, Alex Israel
Alex Israel, Sky Drop, 2012

The Rubell Family Collection has a strong focus on supporting emerging and mid-career artists and is exhibiting High Anxiety, their latest acquisitions since 2014 alongside New Shamans/Novos Xamãs: ​Brazilian Artists inspired by the Rubells’ extensive research trips to Belo Horizonte, São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.

Rubell Family Collection, Brent Wadden
Brent Wadden, No. 1 Dominion, 2014
Rubell Family Collection, Paul Kneale
Paul Kneale
Rubell Family Collection, John Williams
Background: John Williams, Summer Specials, 2015

Rubell Family Collection, John Williams Rubell Family Collection, John Williams

Rubell Family Collection, Paulo Nimer Pjota
Paulo Nimer Pjota, Between Philosophy and crime, Part I and II, 2015

The Margulies Collection, in the middle of Wynwood Art District, is surrounded by street art in this industrial neighborhood. There are two current displays of colossal scale by Jannis Kounellis and Anselm Kiefer alongside permanent collection works.

The Margulies Collection, Franz West
Franz West, Wall on wall paint, 2003
“In the past, when I wanted to make a sculpture, it was also something an art dealer wanted. But it was still up to me weather or not to produce something. There aren’t any more sculptures standing around now. Instead I’m confronted with demands that I react to. It’s an interaction with the environment that determines how a work gets to the pedestal. It isn’t purely constructive. I don’t construct things from out of the void and place them into the world. I face the world and I respond to its demands the best I can. That’s the way I work – not constructive but responsive, as they say.”
The Margulies Collection, Jannis Kounellis
Janis Kounellis “I promise to be severe, to continue on the path of opposition and to extract that breath of glimpsed poetics, even if I have to drag it out by the roots”

The Margulies Collection, Jannis Kounellis

The Margulies Collection, Anselm Kiefer
Anselm Kiefer, Geheimnis der Farne, 2007

The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation is in Downtown Miami. The building’s façade deserves a major mention and it is worth the visit on its own. The mini tiles wrap the building entirely, creating a jungle effect in the courtyard.

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Amilcar de Castro
Amilcar de Castro

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Tiles facade

Pérez Art Museum Miami is technically not a private collection. It is a partnership between Metropolitan Dade County Government and a private corporation. It was named after Jorge M. Pérez in recognition of a generous gift. It houses a permanent collection and temporary exhibitions.

Pérez Art Museum Miami, Carmen Herrera
Carmen Herrera, Alba, 2014
Pérez Art Museum Miami, John McLaughlin
John McLaughlin, Untitled #8, 1970
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Ed Clark
Ed Clark, Pink Wave, 2006
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Morris Louis
Morris Louis, Circus II, 1959/60
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Morris Louis
Morris Louis, Delta Eta, 1960

Miami South Beach Art Deco

All images © Marina Ribera Iñigo

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